In the marine park of Poe, New Caledonia, the world seems still ok. The reefs and the lagoon are glittering in blue and turquoise.
But when seasoned sailor Ivan Macfadyen returned from his last Pacific crossing he raised an ominous alarm: "I'm used to seeing turtles, dolphins, sharks and big flurries of feeding birds. But this time, for 3000 nautical miles there was nothing alive to be seen.”
This once vibrant expanse of sea was hauntingly quiet, and covered with trash.
Experts are calling it the silent collapse. Although very few of us see it, we are causing it -- overfishing, climate change, acidification, and pollution are devastating our oceans and wiping out entire species. It’s not just the annihilation of millennia of wonder and beauty, it impacts our climate and all life on Earth.
But we have a fleeting window still to act and 2015 could be the year to turn the tide -- the UN is considering an initiative to stop dumping and pillaging in the high seas, and the UK just announced that they will create the largest single marine reserve ever in one of the most pristine areas on earth!
Please all help to increase the public pressure significantly by joining Avaaz campaign or similar initiatives.
Everybody for the recovery of the ocean and for living sustainably on the Blue Planet.
A summary report from the Pacific can be found here.